British Land hunts for a new boss

PROPERTY giant British Land is looking far afield to replace its boss John Ritblat. But the veteran developer, whose son Nick is a candidate to succeed him, clearly finds the issue tricky.

Ritblat senior said: 'It's a very difficult thing. I want whatever Nick wants, as any father would. I don't know what Nick wants.'

Headhunters Whitehead Mann are leading the search, overseen by new BL non-executive Chris Gibson-Smith, the Stock Exchange chairman.

'We will take a few months,' said Ritblat. He moves up to chairman at next year's annual general meeting after fierce criticism of his autocratic style.

But he damped down the row with record BL annual profits of £172m and rising property values amid the worst City downturn in more than a decade. 'We can take any amount of dirty weather. We are roaring,' he said.

Long leases and blue-chip tenants limited the fall in values at BL's City offices to 6%, compared with 16% at rival Land Securities.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the 'Glistening Bank') extended its lease at Broadgate to 2022 instead of moving to Canary Wharf. In return BL was forced to give it three years and five months rent free, at a cost of £41.5m.

The Safeway bid battle has put retail property in the spotlight, boosting the value of BL's supermarkets and department stores 8% and helping to lift group assets to £9.65bn, a better-than-expected outcome.

Ritblat thinks talk of a City property collapse is overdone, despite swathes of job cuts. BL has two big speculative developments due next year but has signed up enough tenants to cover its costs.

BL seems unlikely to launch a rival bid for Chelsfield, where Elliott Bernerd is plotting a management buyout.

The shares, up 5p to 478p, still trade at a huge 44% discount to net asset value, up 7.1% to 860p. Dividends rose 8.1% to 9.3p. Buy, says broker Merrill Lynch.